Don’t Count Your Chickens…

A Fable (Fables have morals, so stick with it)

A long time ago, there was a farmer who raised, among other things, chickens. Now he had some wonderful chickens. They lived to a ripe old age, and laid many eggs. Although the farmer did take some of the eggs the chickens laid to feed his family, most were hatched, and grew to be happy healthy chickens, which the farmer was able to sell at market for quite a nice profit. This profit helped him pay his monthly rent, and allowed the farmer and his family to live quite a happy life.

Times were so good, that the farmer thought he would be able to buy his land soon, and be rid of his evil landlord. It seemed that the landlord, who was quite old and smelly, was in love with the farmer’s young, beautiful daughter. He hoped that one day, the farmer would not be able to pay his monthly rent, for then he would demand that the farmer allow him to marry the farmer’s daughter or the mean landlord would take back his lands. This seemed very unlikely though, because of the good times all were experiencing.

There soon came a time when economic conditions did get very bad, and in order to pay his landlord, the farmer began selling more of his chickens than was his custom. As times worsened, and taxes kept rising, the farmer had to sell more and more chickens to save his farm, and provide food for his family. Things got so bad that the farmer had very few chickens left, and it seemed that he was going to lose his farm after all.

But as luck had it, the old king of the land, who was quite mean and selfish died. His son began to rule the kingdom in a new way. He promised the people that he would make up for his father’s greedy ways, and restore prosperity to all the lands. The farmer, upon hearing of this promise began to rejoice. “We’re saved,” he exalted. “My lands will be saved and we will flourish once again.”

Now the farmer turned his attentions to restoring his stock of chickens. He was quite pleased over the next few weeks. His chickens laid eggs. The eggs hatched, and the farmer’s income began to grow. Yes all was good, so good that he went to his landlord and offered to buy the lands.

The landlord, although very disappointed that he would not be able to marry the farmer’s daughter, agreed that he would take 200 hundred chickens in exchange for the land. “Why that’s wonderful,” exclaimed the farmer. “I will have the 200 in less that a week.”

Now we all know that things do not always go as planned, and there came to pass the worst chicken blight ever. All the farmer’s chickens were lost. This left the farmer and his family destitute. The landlord got his wish and married the farmer’s daughter.

The moral of the story is: If you are participating in a Super Bowl Box Pool, and have the numbers 0 (AFC) and 4 (NFC), and the NFC team is driving down the field at the end of the first half and about to score a touchdown to make the halftime score 14 to 10 (in favor of the NFC team, and you have visions spending your winnings), but the AFC team intercepts the sure touchdown pass and runs that pass back 100 yards for a touchdown of their own, making the actual halftime score 17 to 7 in favor of the AFC team (and therefore there are no winnings), you should realize that you shouldn’t count your chickens … Or better yet, if there are less than 3 minutes to go in that same game, and the AFC team has the ball (although very deep in their own territory, like at their 1 yard line) and is leading 20 to 14, and on third and ten miraculously gets a first down that will just about allow them to run out the clock (and putting the BIG PRIZE in your pocket allowing you to envision even better ways to spend the money than before), but wait, there’s an offensive holding penalty IN THE ENDZONE, nullifying the first down and resulting in a safety which makes the score 20 to 16 (and thereby ends any chance of winning said pool, thus, for the second time in the same game have the money ripped out of your hands) you realize yet again, that you shouldn’t Count your chickens...

PS:

Remarkably, the landlord turned out to be quite a good and loving husband. He gave the lands to the farmer as a gift to his new in-laws, and even restocked the chickens. He and the farmer’s daughter had many children, and they all lived happily ever after.

And by the way you filthy minded pigs, where did you think I was going with the farmer’s daughter bit?

allan

jai guru deve